Chief Minister Raghubar Das proposed that the number of working days under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) be increased from 100 days to at least 150 to 200 days considering the lack of employment opportunities brought about by the drought in Jharkhand.
This addition to working days will help a great deal in containing the burden of unemployment in recent times, Das said while interacting with the Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) visiting the State to take stock of the drought going on following a weak monsoon this year.
“Jharkhand has already been declared drought-affected by the State Government. IMCT should examine the catastrophe caused by this drought by visiting the fields and calculate the losses. Following this, the proposals forwarded by the State Government should be considered and swiftly processed, so that this drought can be tackled,” Das said during the meeting.
Buffer stocks of 10 quintals of food grains are being sent to panchayats of the State by the Government, he added. “Jharkhand usually gets 1200 mm rainfall every year, but delayed monsoon resulted in dry periods. There is a need for stopping this water from draining away. For this, repairing old wells and ponds as well as digging new ones and constructing check dams will be done before next monsoon so that water from a particular region stays there.
This will help in maintaining groundwater level and providing water for irrigation round the clock,” said Das.
The Jharkhand Government has sent a proposal to the tune of Rs 1,140.77 crore to the Centre for executing remedial measures against the drought. Out of this, funds worth Rs 216.39 crore have been asked for bringing agriculture back on its feet again. Rs 30.77 crore will be used in the urban domain, Rs 170.39 crore in drinking water and sanitation and Rs 723.21 crore will be used for water resources.
“We will begin working on the proposals as soon as we get official notification on them,” stated Additional Secretary, Union Agriculture Department, Jalaj Srivastava, who is leading the Central team. The CM assured to complete the required formalities in this regard latest by Monday.
later, two teams left for visiting the drought-affected regions to get to know its effect firsthand. Team A, led by Srivastava himself visited Palamu, whereas, Team B, headed by Gopal Prasad, visited Ramgarh and Hazaribagh. In their field visits, the teams found that the estimated crop production has been less than 50 metric tonnes, which is more than a decrease of 33 per cent.
“We tried to convey to the teams the predicament we are in. They were told about crop failures and decline in water levels in reservoirs. They also talked to the locals to understand the situation with food grains and fodder scarcity,” said State Project Officer for Disaster Management, Sanjay Kumar Srivastava.